In recent years, as the Internet has spread, it has often become necessary for a user-operated, mobile terminal-side client device and a server device prepared by the provider of a game or the like to store the same information, such as game information, information on progress of the game, user information, and the like. In such server devices, game programs and the above information for game management are managed centrally using a database.
In this way, when storing the above identical information on a client device and a server device, the information stored on the client device and the server device end up differing if the mobile terminal of the client device that performs wireless communication goes offline, for example due to deterioration in the communication environment.
To address such a situation, conventionally a technique has been proposed so that, in a game that is executed by allocating a game space among a plurality of players, a client device can continue the game by independently using the game space allocated to the client device even while offline, with the content in the offline state being reflected upon subsequently returning online.
Such a conventional technique, however, cannot easily handle the need to execute the game in another game space, i.e. to use a game space allocated to another player or a shared game space, and complex synchronization processing by a server device for centralized management becomes necessary.
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method of synchronizing an online game, and a server device, that do not require centralized information management, that reduce the processing burden on each device during online communication, and that allow for continuation of processing in an offline environment.